Bad shit happens to good people, but it never becomes unbearable, it is also never hopeless. It's tragic, for sure; heartbreaking, even. Martin is so skilled that this actually becomes a strength for the story, as it keeps you guessing, and rooting for the characters you love knowing that death may literally be right around a darkened corner. But, as one door closes, another opens.
This is the exact opposite of The Walking Dead, and a direction that series should take, to be honest. There is a real sense of danger and doom.
The characters are in a constant state of development, including those you hate by the end of the first book/season.
Stick with it, JB, I encourage you; though it gets bad, it is always good (and justice will be served).
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.
